Searchability

 

Everyone wants to come up first in Google or be remembered with a quick and easy URL for people to quickly type in. But often, this isn’t always the case. Allowing customers to easily find you is the most important marketing that a company can do. 

What can you do to ensure you are memorable? Maybe you are a .net instead of .com, or a commonly misspelled word. The best thing to do is buy various URLs and have them automatically redirect to your main site. I often type in ‘reality’ instead of ‘realty’ when I go to EdinaRealty.com. Lucky for me, they own that misspelled URL too so I never even have to correct myself.

“I am on the 17^th page of Google results,” said my client yesterday. ‘How can this be?’ they asked.

Companies are always seeking to improve their searchability. My first question back is usually, “When did you last updated anything on your site?” Content should be continually added, tweaked and kept fresh. Add some location keywords through headers, copy and captions to ensure you come in location searches too.

Have you looked at the data? Review your site’s traffic through Google Analytics and find out how people are currently finding you. The keywords, page views and traffic sources can give some valuable insight. If all the traffic already knows your name or is coming up organically, then maybe coming up in Google searches might not be that important. You already have brand equity and are memorable now – people know you. But how do you reach the people who don’t know you?

You get what you pay for! If you really want traffic, then set a monthly online ad budget and start getting results. Try pay-per-click campaigns with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn and mobile networks. Target specific geographic areas and demographics per campaign and network.

What else have you done on the web that might link back to you? Add links to any news stories or press releases on other sites. Try getting listed in industry directories or pay for banner ads on industry sites. Add social media icons and links on every page of your site. Make sure to get social media user names that are easy to find and are close to your company name. Tweet on industry topics of the day. Start engaging and get followers. 1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook according to ComScore, so boosting your Facebook presence can’t hurt either. Try posting special offers, trivia and other ‘insider-only’ information to track and see the pay-offs. Start a blog with an RSS feed and regularly post on relevant topics.

All of these tactics take time and money, so sit down and strategize before you jump in head-first. As in all marketing, it’s best to evaluate what’s broken and what needs fixing. Who is your core audience; how can you try to reach them? Testing 1 or 2 approaches at a time is a great way to evaluate what works on a small level. The key to every online approach is consistency. It’s never really finished because there is always more you can do and the next big thing is right around the corner.